Glute Imbalance and Scapular Winging

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  • darreneatschicken
    darreneatschicken Posts: 669 Member
    edited January 2018
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    Visited the chiropractor and he told me that I can start doing full body workouts with light weight.

    I was a bit surprised, especially since I told him that my left hip is still over-activating and over-compensating during my squats.

    He told me that a bit of hip flexion is normal, as it will happen whenever your hip bends. Just keep stretching it out!

    So I tried squatting, benching, and rowing in the gym today, and I felt weak as hell!

    My squats were partly uneven in regards to glute activation symmetry (could feel either the right or the left one working more than the other). When I focused on pushing evenly from both heels, I got the best results. Just gotta keep working with little-to-no weight. I think I'm almost at the point of accepting the fact that I'm never going to be perfectly even in regards to bilateral glute activation. As long as I can feel my left glute activating, it doesn't bother me that much that my left hip is also firing (or that my right glute is working more on certain reps). Doesn't mean that I'm going to stop trying to release that hip though; it just means that I gotta have realistic expectations.

    I did 5 sets of 5 reps bench press with 5 lb DB's (seriously all I could do... not even joking)... Focused on having that nice pinch in the shoulder blades, and pushing up with just my pecs. Didn't experience any pain in my left arm after, which is good, because I was sort of expecting some. Chiropractor says he's gonna work on my scapular winging in the upcoming weeks.

    Gonna try deadlifting and shoulder pressing with DB's during my next workout... prep myself for StrongLifts.

    Stoked for what the future holds!
  • darreneatschicken
    darreneatschicken Posts: 669 Member
    edited January 2018
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    Picked up a solid pair of training shoes from Nike. They are super comfortable and I can barely feel my orthotics when I'm wearing them!

    https://www.nike.com/ca/t/zoom-train-command-training-shoe-LBTglgRR/922478-003

    Squatted with no weight today, and I felt so good. Surprisingly, both glutes were activating evenly, despite the fact that the left one felt different than the right when firing.

    Gonna start loading up the weight now to see if I can keep this up.
  • darreneatschicken
    darreneatschicken Posts: 669 Member
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    My left leg still hurts after. It feels like a faint, nagging pain running down the back of my leg. I have to stretch the hell out of my hammies after in order to relieve some of the tension. Rest helps too, but sometimes the pain lasts for more than a day.

    My chiropractor says it's because I'm working out too hard, but I'm using little-to-no weight right now, and it's only my left leg hurting, so I'll have to talk with him again.
  • darreneatschicken
    darreneatschicken Posts: 669 Member
    edited January 2018
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    Going to the chiropractor has greatly helped me increase left glute activation (moreso than seeing kinesiologists, physiotherapists, and personal trainers), but I am unsure on how to relieve and prevent the pain going down the back of my left leg after I perform light squats and deadlifts...
  • tomsquest
    tomsquest Posts: 2 Member
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    You should think about finding a strong first or Rkc certified kettlebell trainer.

    You should not have all the se problems at your age.

    If i were you i would do the following.

    Day 1

    Goblet squat
    Kettlebell swings
    A walk with a tight band around your ankles ( one band it’s total )
    One arm shoulder press
    Batwing exercise


    If you have to do barbell work

    Barbell back squat - just choose a position that feels comfertable, low bar or high bar it doesn’t matter, you can actually have a set up the middle of those two you know. That vid you posted is a mixture of both so not very good to be honest. Just get under the bar get a grip that feels comfertable and a stance that feels comfertable and just practice.

    Lunges with no weight on both sides.

    Bench - again just get a set up you like it doesn’t matter whether its wide or narrow.

    Deadlift - just practise don’t chase weight.

  • darreneatschicken
    darreneatschicken Posts: 669 Member
    edited March 2018
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    How will those exercises you listed help me?

    How will working with a kettlebell trainer help cure my scapular winging?

    Have you experienced my problems before?

    I am doing StrongLifts right now... and I can hardly feel my left scap retracting during the upper body exercises.

    I keep stretching them though out... and I have been doing the last two exercises shown in this video:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL2N9ixQMFU
  • Lean59man
    Lean59man Posts: 714 Member
    edited March 2018
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    Wow, that is weird.

    Are you intentionally making it do that?

    Is that a birth defect that you born with?
  • darreneatschicken
    darreneatschicken Posts: 669 Member
    edited March 2018
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    Lean59man wrote: »
    Wow, that is weird.

    Are you intentionally making it do that?

    Is that a birth defect that you born with?

    I'm pretty sure it's related to my horrible posture... a result of spending my entire childhood hunched over in front of a screen. However, the picture in that video is a very extreme case... my winging is not that bad.

    In fact, the chiropractor (that I don't see anymore) said that my scaps don't wing anymore than the normal person. He says that I am a young and healthy individual, and that my problems are mostly self-inflicted.

    I don't believe him though, because I can hardly feel my left scap retracting during upper body exercises as compared to the right scap.

    The right scap just gets a nicer pinch, and feels much more stable and supportive.

    Past physiotherapists have noticed my slight scapular winging, but none of their exercise routines have helped me.

    I am pretty lost at this point...

    I googled "scapular winging Vancouver" and the only thing that showed up were blogs from a couple physiotherapists and chiropractors in my city... should I see one of these guys? Seems sort of counterintuitive as no specialist has been able to help me much yet.

    In the meantime, I'm just working on releasing the scaps and the surrounding muscles (pecs, anterior deltoids). Doing a couple simple scapular exercises and lifting progressive overload (StrongLifts).

    I don't care if I can't feel my left scap as much as my right. I'm tired of rehabbing. It's been 3 years and I'm ready to lift.

    I'll stop when I experience pain... something that has happened in the past, especially during the bench. But ever since starting StrongLifts, I haven't experienced any pain in my left arm yet.

    I've purposely plateaued at 45 lbs for the bench so that I can just work on refining my form. It pisses me off that my left pec isn't activating. My left scap is unstable and doesn't move properly. I feel this discrepancy the most on the bench and it makes me angry.

    Rows and OHP I don't care about not having feeling. I just keep increasing that weight because I need to get jacked. Hopefully my scapular winging slowly corrects itself overtime. At the beginning of StrongLifts, my left scap used to get sore after my workouts, maybe indicating that it is getting stronger? I can only hope...

    Squats and deadlifts are coming along nicely. I'm not deadlifting from the floor yet because the weight is still too low to put on the ground. Once I can get a 25 lb plate on each side, my gym has these foam squares that I can stack on top of each other for deadlifts. So I can stack like 3 foams on top of one another for each side so that the bar can get high enough off the ground.
  • darreneatschicken
    darreneatschicken Posts: 669 Member
    edited March 2018
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    Just got off the phone with my chiropractor whom I don't see anymore.

    I know you guys think that all chiropractors are witch doctors from Haiti, but I seriously just need someone to talk to...

    Anyways, nothing really new. He just told me to keep doing those serratus anterior and scapular exercises that I'm already doing. Told me that I can look online to find more.

    It's annoying because in the spring of 2016, I went through a 2-month phase where I did a bunch of these exercises (prescribed by my PT) every second day. However, when I tried lifting, the problem still didn't go away.

    So I dunno man. I guess I just have to be patient and keep at it.

    At least I'm lifting now. Just supplementing my lifts with these activation exercises beforehand. It used to be that I never lifted and would only do these activation exercises.

    I googled "I can't feel my left scap" and a bunch of reddit fitness posts popped up where people had the same problem as me. People just recommended that they do exercises such as face pulls and shoulder shrugs.
  • Cherimoose
    Cherimoose Posts: 5,210 Member
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    Dern420 wrote: »
    So I dunno man. I guess I just have to be patient and keep at it.

    I guess so. Post an update next year. :+1:
  • darreneatschicken
    darreneatschicken Posts: 669 Member
    edited March 2018
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    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCPp1DUypo0&t=9s

    I just finished watching this athlean-x video and he said that if you are tight, then you should be stretching out your levator scapula, rhomboids, lats, pecs, and rotator cuffs before moving onto the activation stage. He shows you a couple of the stretches and then links the rest in the video description.

    However, he doesn't specify how long you should stay in this stretching stage before moving onto the activation phase. Weeks? Months?

    I'm thinking for me, it's going to be at least 1-2 months of stretching before I can do any sort of exercise.

    I found the video very insightful, as he gives the same advice as my chiropractor (but in terms of scap activation rather than glute activation): you have to release the tension in the opposing muscles before you can start to strengthen the weak muscle.
  • darreneatschicken
    darreneatschicken Posts: 669 Member
    edited May 2018
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    A few hours after my physio appointment, I started experiencing a deep pain running down my left leg.

    I stretched out my legs and it felt a lot better, so I decided to do 30 reps of a prescribed glute initiation exercise.

    Woke up today, and I felt the pain running down my left leg again. Called the physio and asked him what was up.

    He said that such pain is normal after treatment because my glute has been so inactive, and a lot of stress has been placed on my sciatic nerve as a result.

    He told me to take it easy for the next few days: do nothing but ice and stretch.

    Then I can get back into trying the exercises he prescribed for me. Maybe do like 10 reps a day only.

    "There is no other way to get past this," he told me. "You must strengthen that glute."
  • darreneatschicken
    darreneatschicken Posts: 669 Member
    edited May 2018
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    Lol so I just called my chiropractor, and he pretty much told me that what the athletic therapist said was false.

    "I already tried realigning your pelvis several times... you always go back to being uneven," he said to me. "That's why I prescribed you the orthotics with the heel lift. If the therapist fixes you, then I'd be happy to modify the orthotics for you so that they only correct for pronation. But I can almost guarantee you, that's not going to happen. I already tried. Many times."

    Lol at retarded health professionals disagreeing with one another.

    I have to say that I believe my chiropractor more because he's actually seen me several times over the course of a few months, whereas the athletic therapist has only seen me once.

    I bet that if I saw the therapist more, he would keep trying to correct me, and then eventually realize that his attempts were futile. But I'm not going to spend more $ trying to find out.

    What bothers me is that I still feel uneven on my left side (e.g. single-leg squats), my glutes aren't activating evenly on squats, and my left hips and hamstrings refuse to be quiet, despite all the stretching that I've been doing.

    Anyways, I left the therapist a message today, and will be speaking with him tomorrow. I'm interested in what he has to say lol.
  • PAFC84
    PAFC84 Posts: 1,871 Member
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    Stop going backward and forward between different health professionals that you've seen in the past; they are not going to change their original diagnosis which you've already discounted, hence you seeing another health professional.

    Give this pelvic specialist a chance.
  • darreneatschicken
    darreneatschicken Posts: 669 Member
    edited May 2018
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    Yeah I'm going to be talking with the pelvic specialist over the phone tomorrow, so maybe I'll end up booking a follow-up appointment with him.

    Each appointment costs over $100, so I'm just worried that I'll end up spending more $ for no reason.

    Do you guys really think that my pelvis can be aligned despite my chiropractor saying that it can't?

    He said that when the therapist yanks my leg to supposedly pull my hip into place, all that he's doing is actually pulling it out of the hip socket.

    The orthotics help my glute activate, but they don't seem to be helping my muscle asymmetries (e.g., right abs working more than left, overactive left hips, hamstrings, and IT band, harder to do a left-single-leg squat than a right one).

    Health professionals are not retarded. They've given me a lot of insight into my body. It's just frustrating when their advice doesn't work, and they give contradicting information, especially when I've been trying to fix this problem for years.

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